Editorial spotlight: Ferncliff faces many hurdles in quest for new site

Behavior specialist Christina Green, right, helps a student put on makeup Dec. 19 in a bathroom that also serves as storage at Ferncliff Manor in Yonkers. The school for children with severe developmental disabilities needs to relocate.

The Saich family that operates Ferncliff Manor in Yonkers has spent 40 years looking for a new site for its residential school for children with severe developmental disabilities.

The operators thought they hit pay dirt in Greenburgh, where the sprawling former WestHELP shelter site sits vacant. But, as was made plain in an Editorial Spotlight interview Thursday, Ferncliff's path to the Valhalla property is anything but clear.

The venture faces a variety of hurdles, some of them rooted in the property's messy past; the WestHELP complex overcame stiff opposition, litigation, NIMBYISM and undisguised racism when it was conceived more than two decades ago.

Those wounds have been reopened as Greenburgh town officials and the administration of Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino have gotten behind Ferncliff Manor's move - a deal that would necessitate razing housing units that were once promised second lives as low- and moderate-income housing for veterans, seniors and others.

Ferncliff also has to convince the administration of Gov. Andrew Cuomo - it was housing-advocate Cuomo who long ago helped usher in WestHELP - to endorse dismantling housing he helped create. The Ferncliff project depends in part on state financial support.

In Thursday's wide-ranging discussion - the first in a series on the controversy - Patricia Saich, one of the principals, joined by lobbyist Jim Cavanaugh, discussed the challenges facing Ferncliff Manor at its current location and the promise of the WestHELP property.

Greenburgh Councilman Kevin Morgan discussed the town government's favorable view of the Ferncliff initiative; Westchester Legislator Alfreda Williams, who represents Greenburgh, discussed why the past is still relevant to today's controversy, and not just politics; and Board Chairman Ken Jenkins, D-Yonkers, discussed his objections and continuing efforts to find a suitable site for Ferncliff in the city of Yonkers.

Saich said as the conversation broke up: "Pull a rabbit out of the hat for us."

Watch video of the session at www.lohud.com/edtiorialspotlight.

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Editorial spotlight: Ferncliff faces many hurdles in quest for new site

The Saich family that operates Ferncliff Manor in Yonkers has spent 40 years looking for a new site for its residential school for children with severe developmental disabilities.

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